Long-awaited return of Bristol to Portishead railway line is 100% happening – and trains will run by 2028
Local politicians have hailed the Portishead Railway as 100% happening at last, after the government gave the scheme its backing.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has announced this week that the project to reopen the railway will receive the multi-million pound government investment it needs to make it happen.
The long-awaited scheme will see new stations built in Portishead and Pill and the railway, which closed to passengers in 1964, connecting the town and village to Bristol once again. Local politicians gave 2028 as the year when the line would be up and running.
At a press event on Tuesday (July 8) at Bristol Temple Meads — where the trains will terminate — North Somerset Council leader Mike Bell said: “Its been a time coming but we’ve got the final sign offs that we need so its full steam ahead for the project to get the Portishead, Pill, to Bristol railway line underway.”
North Somerset MP Sadik Al-Hassan said: “I campaigned on the Portishead Railway and as MP I want to keep my promise.” He said: “It’s one of the best anniversary presents I could hope for.”
He was elected as North Somerset’s first ever Labour MP a year ago last Friday and immediately found himself in the middle of the battle over the railway. Weeks after the new Labour government was elected, Mr Al-Hassan found out when he read it in the Sunday Times that Chancellor Rachel Reeves axing the Restoring Your Railway fund which had been set to cover the government funding for the protest.
He said: “My first job was to engage with stakeholders, ministers, councils just to try and get the funding back in line — to try and push for how important this project was because it’s vital for people in Portishead and Pill.”
Mr Bell said: “The good news is that after a while everybody becomes so committed and so publicly invested in a project that there’s no going back and I think that’s definitely where we are now.”
He hopes that trains could be running on the line by 2027, although West of England Metro Mayor Helen Godwin said she would be “cautious” and say 2028. But she said she was “100%” confident the scheme would go ahead. She said: “We know we’ve got the funding, we know we’ve got the will.”
The £27.6m government funding announced brings its contribution to £47.48m. The rest of the scheme’s £182.21m price tag is coming from North Somerset Council and the West of England Combined Authority.
North Somerset Council had a full council meeting after the announcement and the Portishead Railway was already on the agenda before the announcement. Mr Bell said: “Today we are just signing off on some final legal agreements as part of the process to deliver the railway track and by happy coincidence I’ll be able to give colleagues the good news that we’ve got the green light from the Department of Transport as well. So hopefully this will be the last time we need to be talking about this at full council and the focus will now be on getting it done.”
He added: “We have already got all the planning consent, the development consent order is in place, we have done the necessary land acquisitions and negotiations, all the environmental work so it really will be about mobilising the project and getting on with it.”